A way for Alabama to play Virginia Tech in 2009...

Interesting stuff coming out of the Mal Moore Administration Building Thursday... For the first time, I hung out with Dave Hart, the new executive director of Alabama athletics. He shared his vision and other stuff, and you can see what he said detailed at the bottom of this article in The Birmingham News...

The Hokies! This might be a painting or something

I'll get to a lot of what Hart said later in this post, but want some news?

How about this from statement from AD Mal Moore on the possibility of playing Virginia Tech:

"That is something we are working on, still," Moore said. "I think we do have a team that will replace us versus Tulane, which would free us up to play the game in Atlanta versus Virginia Tech. So that is certainly now a possibility. And hopefully we can get all the details of that worked out in the (near) future."

I asked for clarification, and Moore said the team to replace UA on Tulane's 2009 schedule (thus allowing flexibility to open vs. VTech in Atlanta) is BYU. So, that could be sweet. Oh, here is Tulane side of it from AD Rick Dickson, who refused about five interview requests over the past three weeks.

Also, Moore sounded like he was ready to roll with stadium expansion: "We are working in the athletic department side with the architects, to be ready when we get the nod from the president," Moore said.

"We don't know exactly when that will be, hopefully soon, Moore continued. "But if not and it's a ways down the road, we've got a 92,000-seat stadium -- and that's a nice stadium -- to go forth as is. Hopefully, good things will happen."

So that's two pieces of interesting news, right? That's the top portion of the article I wrote. But there is also a segment on Hart, Moore's new right-hand man and the former Florida State AD. He was asked 30 minutes worth of questions, including several key ones.

-- Why is he here? (Loves Alabama, great opportunity)
-- What will have oversight of? (Everything, including basketball and compliance. He reports to Mal)
-- Did he leave Florida State because of that academic scandal(Nope. It was because of a conflict with the president)
-- Is he going to be Moore's successor? (Both say no. Really, they mean it. No.)

Wanna hear a funny story? Here is Hart discussing how crazy it is for the former UA hoopster to be back at his alma mater...

"Laying there in bed about 2:30 in th morning one night, I whispered, 'Pam, are you awake?' " Hart said.

His wife Pam responded, "I am now."

So Hart continued: "Can you just imagine what's happened in the last month? In your wildest dreams, if you think back the last few months, did you ever see me back at the University of Alabama in administration? In your wildest dreams?"

Pam had the final word: "Let me make something real clear to you at 2:30 in the morning. You have never appeared in any of my wildest dreams."

Hart couldn't help but laugh. "So that's her take on the thing," he said.

Finally, here is Hart's take on a couple key items...

On his short-term goals: "I'm just trying to listen and learn. I have a general sense of knowledge about the University of Alabama. But I think it's important to gain knowledge of the existing structure, processes, people. I've met with the administrative staff and now I'm meeting with everyone individually. At the end of that process to see and discuss with Mal whether we want to do some things differently, and if we do, the reason would be obvious -- anything to make us better. I came here to try to help make a difference."

On leaving Florida State: "When I left Florida State, the president (T.K. Wetherell)and I were talking about my contract, which had 18 months left. And there were some important issues directly related to that that we agreed to disagree on. And as a result of that, it was just time to move on. I offered to stay and transition the interim athletics director, which I did. And I served on small committees that the president had formed to look into academic misconduct situation we had relating to an online music course. I did that. We were not even aware that we had a situation with that until after this decision to move on took place."

On success in Olympic or non-revenue sports: "It parallels much of what anybody in Mal's chair would tell you. I believe in comprehensive excellence and the pursuit of excellence. And that all starts with people. Everything goes back to people - people are your most important commodity. One of the many things that Mal has accomplished here is he has given coaches facilities and resources and when coaches have (that) you should expect excellence. There is no reason why you wouldn't expect that to take place. Recruiting is the lifeline for all of our coaches, but leadership, it's amazing. You put the right coach in the right position, it is amazing what can happen to a program. Leadership is critical."